David Parker rejects calls to delay RMA reforms

Environment Minister David Parker. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Environment Minister David Parker is unmoved by calls from the Green Party to slow down Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms, which would mean the legislation at the heart of the reforms would not pass to after the election.

Eugenie Sage, who chairs the Environment Committee, which has been scrutinising the two bills that will replace the RMA, has said some submissions have convinced her the reforms would benefit from extra time. She stressed the remarks were in her capacity as a Green MP, rather than committee chair.

Parker said the idea of delaying the reforms further was “quite wrong”.

He said reports on RMA reform had been trickling in for “many years”, citing multiple reports, including the Government’s own review of the RMA which began in 2019 and wrapped up in 2020. That review recommended replacing the RMA with two pieces of legislation, the Natural and Built Environments Act and the Spatial Planning Act.

Parker noted the Government had even gone so far as to introduce an exposure draft of the bill to gauge feedback last year.

Parker said he was not phased by the criticism levelled at the changes in select committee.

“I think there’s very broad agreement that we should cut down from over 100 RMA plans to 15. That necessitates regional plans rather than 100 plans.

“There’s agreement broadly with the purpose statement really protecting the environment, but once the natural environment is protected, enabling development limits and targets, there have been submissions as to how to improve them, but they’re broadly agreed.

“The National planning framework is agreed, those are the core elements of the bill upon which there is very widespread agreement and a lot of the rest is detail,” Parker said.

But Sage said she was swayed by some critical submissions into calling for a delayed report back time for the select committee’s report. The committee is currently set to report back by June 6. Sage acknowledged that a delay would mean the legislation would pass before the election.

“That’s a very tight time frame for a bill that is as big and complex as the Natural and Built Environments Bill plus the Spatial Planning Bill,” Sage said.

“Our preference would be for the select committee really work hard on it and for that to go out for another round of public comment,” she said, reckoning the committee might work up to August, when Parliament is due to rise,” she said.

Sage cited criticism from the likes of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Simon Upton, who, while agreeing with the objectives of the law, questioned whether it would be effective as drafted.

He said the legislation might not adequately protect the environment and warned that they create uncertainty through the “novel” terms used in the bill, which would have to be tested in court.

The infrastructure Commission warned that a new resource management system needed to be up and running by 2028, or the country might faces missing emissions targets because it could not consent and build the necessary infrastructure. It said the current system was so slow and expensive that New Zealand would miss emissions targets without change.

National’s RMA spokesman Chris Bishop said Parker’s reforms “are fatally flawed”.

“This is RMA 2.0 - it’s fundamentally flawed,” he said.

Bishop said it was “highly likely,” National would continue to oppose the bills at second reading. The party opposed the bills at first reading.

Parker said he believed the issues with the bills raised in select committee could be dealt with.

“There’s a lot of really good submissions. Civil society is really engaged because it is our most important cornerstone piece of legislation both for protection of the environment and for development,” Parker said.